Nude Art Modeling is Not Sex Work

As my regular readers will know from one of the earlier articles (you can find it here), I am, from time to time, a nude art model. And I love it.

But everywhere I go, I seem to discover people who don't realize that what I'm doing isn't akin to stripping or pornography. When I advertise my services (which I do in a college town, dense with visual artists), I have to include a paragraph in my ad clarifying exactly this fact, but nonetheless, I get continual offers that have nothing to do with art at all. People seem to think that if I'm willing to take my clothes off for money, I'll do it in any context (and do other things as well).

Just today, I got an e-mail from an interested party telling me that, although he is not an artist, he would like to pay to see me naked in person, just because it's been that long since he's gotten laid or been able to see a naked chick.

"It's the same as standing for a charcoal drawing," he wrote.

No, dude, it really isn't.

Now, generally speaking, I have nothing against sex work. I mean, it's a complicated and controversial subject and I do have a number of nuanced and sometimes conflicting opinions on it (stick around kids, you'll get to read 'em all if you can stomach it), but I'm not one of those people who cries, "for shame!" at the very thought of strippers, escorts, erotic masseuses, and adult film stars. I also have no problem with the idea that some of the people who work in these fields might also timeshare the artists' podium with me from time to time.

However, I do have a problem with the idea that we seem, in this culture, incapable of separating the idea of nudity from the idea of sexuality, especially where women are concerned. Based on what I've gathered talking to my male nude model colleagues, they don't get the same assumption of sexual availability connected to their work as models.

Sure, sexuality is an important part of the perception of the human body, and it has a place in art, to be sure. I've done some photo shoots with a distinctly erotic focus too them - in an artistic, not pornographic manner (trust me) and found it to be a very rewarding experience. Somehow, though, women's bodies are perceived as perpetually existing as objects of sex, and I don't like that.

For this reason, most of the artists I work with seem somewhat surprised (though glad, I'm pleased to say) whenever I choose poses that vary from the norm. Instead of constantly reclining and trying to look graceful and coy, I give them reaching, pushing, pulling, working, pouting, scratching, slumping, or anything else I can think of within the human experience of body language. (To do less would be to cheat them.)

There's also an interesting way in which people - even artists - talk to a naked woman; they usually seem more comfortable conversing with me casually once my robe is back on, and sometimes, I swear, they take me more seriously when they can't currently see the goods.

Why? They're just clothes. I remain the same person when they're off that I am when they're on. I have the same thoughts about politics, arts, beer, and all of my other interests when I'm naked, and I possess the same talents and life experience when I am in the nude.

Well, I trust artists, at least, to come to realize that. If the rest of the world wants to get on board with that understanding as well, I'll be very glad of it.